Special Issue of Pragmatics

Pragmatics 18:4.635-657
(2008)
International Pragmatics Association
Summary in Spanish
¿UNA CUESTIÓN DE CORTESÍA? ESTUDIO CONTRASTIVO
DEL LENGUAJE FÁTICO EN LA CONVERSACIÓN JUVENIL
Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
En este trabajo proponemos que las palabras vacías y frases de relleno, o marcadores
discursivos, así como las palabras tabús, tienen una finalidad social, pues contribuyen a
mantener la fluidez de la conversación y la relación entre los hablantes jóvenes. Con
mayor aproximación diremos que la función fática de esos recursos se relaciona, a su
vez, con la cortesía lingüística. (Bravo, Albelda, en este volumen).
El término “fático” da pie a una amplia gama de interpretaciones, desde palabras
sueltas sin valor informativo (por ejemplo, Verschueren 1999: 23) a insultos (Mateo y
Yus 2000), conectores de enlace (González 2004) y palabras vacías o frases de relleno,
las cuales en cualquier caso persiguen como propósito principal evitar vacíos en el
habla. Obviamente, existen diferencias culturales entre distintas lenguas, especialmente
cuando se trata de expresiones formulaicas, tal como se mostrará en este trabajo (cf. Mc
Carthy y Carter 1994).
El punto de partida de este estudio es la máxima de cortesía de Leech (1983:
141-142) “Máxima Fática”, según la cual lo esencial reside en el mensaje: “Evita el
silencio” o “Sigue hablando”. La pregunta que intentaremos contestar, basándonos en
esta máxima, es: ¿hasta qué punto las estrategias fáticas utilizadas por los jóvenes en
este estudio se pueden caracterizar como corteses?
Se han utilizado dos corpora para este estudio: The Bergen Corpus of London
Teenage Language (COLT) y el Corpus de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid
(COLAm),
de
aproximadamente
medio
millón
de
palabras
(http://torvald.aksis.uib.no/colt/cwb). COLAm es parte del proyecto COLA (Corpus
Oral de Lenguaje Adolescente) que se propone reunir el habla oral de adolescentes de
España y algunas capitales de Latinoamérica. El corpus COLAm, utlizado en este
trabajo, fue recogido en Madrid entre 2002 y 2003. Consta por el momento de 200.000
palabras (http://www.colam.org).
La definición de discurso fático de Malinowski, es decir, “un tipo de discurso en
el que los enlaces de unión se crean mediante el simple intercambio de palabras en el
que no se comunican ideas, (1923: 315), está “ampliamente aceptado” (Laver 1975:
215; Vigara Tauste 1990: 1090). Lyons (1977) subraya el aspecto comunicativo que,
según él, se concibe como parte de la función social del lenguaje, y argumenta que la
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Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
comunión fática1 se realiza mediante un número limitado de enunciados carentes de
valor informativo (cf. Levinson 1983; Crystal 1995; Senft 1995; Verschueren 1999).
Según Laver (1974), las dos funciones principales de la comunión fática son el
establecimiento y la consolidación de la relación interpersonal (1975: 232), las cuales
tienen lugar principalmente en las fases iniciales y de cierre de las interacciones y se
consiguen mediante modelos estereotipados de comportamiento (1975: 232-233).
Stenström (1994: 11) define el habla fática como un precalentamiento “adicional” para
entrar en faena que sirve para crear un atmósfera agradable; Senft (1995: 3) refiere a los
enunciados fáticos como medios para mantener los canales de la comunicación abiertos;
Langford (1994) subraya que es habitual intercambiar información que cree lazos antes
de proceder al intercambio de datos de tipo más profesional (1994: 151), mientras que
Mc Carthy y Carter (1994), por su parte, señalan las diferencias culturales en cuanto a
las expresiones estandarizadas.
Cheepen (1988) ofrece una definición más amplia. A su modo de ver, la
comunión fática puede “tener lugar como palabras cortas o frases entre otra habla nofática, y también se puede extender a la totalidad de un encuentro (como en una charla)”
(1988: 20-21). Dice que desde 1923, ha habido una tendencia muy fuerte entre los
lingüistas a minusvalorar el grado en el que la comunión fática domina el diálogo, y de
verlo solamente como algo que sucede en frases cortas entremetidas entre usos “más
importantes” del idioma (1988: 21).
Amén de las definiciones tradicionales del habla fática, citadas arriba, un tipo de
medio comunicativo mencionado por Mateo y Yus (2000) se realiza mediante palabras
tabús. Las palabras tabús, que se dicen, “sin intención alguna de insultar” son ejemplos
de habla fática. Gibbon (1977) sugiere el uso de palabras de relleno fáticas, como oh y
er. Los conectores que unen los enunciados se conciben como medios/elementos de
comunión fática por Bazzanella (1990) y por González (2004: 313), quien, refiriéndose
a Fuentes (1993: 213-214), describe “bueno” como un elemento concesivo,
frecuentemente usado por los hablantes como conector de proposiciones, utilizado para
no perder el hilo argumental y como un mitigador de la amenaza de la imagen. En
relación con esto diríamos que ciertas palabras vacías o frases de relleno también se
podrían usar como mitigadores de la amenaza de la imagen, al mismo tiempo que
ayudan al hablante a seguir hablando, sin ir más lejos, el español en plan y su
correspondiente like en inglés:
y nada esta mañana me dice mi padre bueno entonces que al final que vas a hacer esta
tarde en plan bien sabes y yo no se (MAORE3J05).
Zegarac (1998: 340-341), manteniendo un enfoque teórico relevantista, dice que
el término comunicación fática no es un fenómeno natural, sino que lo fático es un
resultado de la situación contextual. Según él “[nuestras] intuiciones sobre el uso fático
de la lengua se basan en modelos de elementos interaccionales incluyendo: (a) de lo que
trata la información comunicada, (b) los tipos de evidencia extraídas en la conversación,
(c) la fuerza con la que se comunica algo, (d) la distribución de efectos cognitivos en
concordancia con el tipo de evidencia extraída consiguiendo estos efectos.” (1998: 340341). Subraya que la comunicación fática a veces es convencional y hace referencia a
1
Con el término de comunión fática partimos de la definición original de Malinowski: “a type of
speech in which ties of union are created by a mere exchange of words” (Ogden and Richards 1923: 315)
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
637
tópicos seguros como el tiempo, el bienestar del oyente, etc. (1998: 348; cf. Leech
1983, abajo)
¿Dónde trazar la línea entre el habla fática y el habla informativa? ¿Es una mera
cuestión de intuición? ¿Es la “faticidad” (phaticness) una cuestión de grado? Zegarac y
Clark (1999: 565) abordan la “interpretación fática” (Zegarac 1998), “como algo según
lo cual la interpretación es fática hasta el límite en que su mayor relevancia se halla en
las conclusiones implicadas, y que no dependen del contenido explícito del enunciado,
sino de la intención comunicativa.” Esto parece razonable, pero no del todo
convincente.
Leech (1983: 141) insiste en que la relación existente entre la cortesía y la
comunión fática, o la actividad de seguir hablando tan solo por mantener la sociabilidad,
donde temas corrientes como el tiempo, o afirmaciones sin información del tipo ¡Te has
cortado el pelo!, son de gran ayuda. La única meta de este tipo de charla es mantener
relaciones sociales amigables y, a su vez, evitar una infracción de las reglas de cortesía.
(1983: 39-40)
Dado que este tipo de comentario supone una ruptura del Principio de
Cooperación de Grice, violando la Máxima de Cantidad, Leech ve la necesidad de una
máxima adicional, a la que llama “Máxima Fática”, cuyo propósito es el Evita el
silencio o Sigue hablando (1983: 141). Dice, no obstante, que “sería inadecuado
describir la comunión fática como un mero evitar el silencio” y añade que “sirve para
extender el terreno común del acuerdo y de la experiencia compartida por los
participantes a través de la elección de temas no-controvertidos y concentrándose en las
actitudes del hablante en vez de en los hechos. (1983: 141-142). Mantener el silencio
cuando uno está involucrado en una conversación sería descortés.
El fin principal de los corpora COLT y COLA es construir corpora orales de
habla espontánea juvenil de dimensiones aceptables. El hecho de que los jóvenes, entre
13 y 19 años, supieran que se les estaba grabando, con bastante frecuencia ha tenido el
efecto de que algunas grabaciones puedan considerarse en su totalidad como fáticas.
Son charlas sin ningún valor informativo especial, el hablar por el hecho de hablar, lo
cual concuerda con Cheepen (1988: 20-21), quien dice que la comunión fática no sólo
ocurre como frases cortas entre otras en el habla no-fática, sino que también se puede
extender a todo un encuentro (como una charla) que puede durar horas, sólo que las
charlas juveniles no duran tanto.
Cuando alguien cuenta algo, sería descortés no responder de una u otra manera.
Verbalmente el interés se podría mostrar con una retroalimentación mínima (por
ejemplo: mhm), interjecciones (oh) o palabras tabús (joder, fuck).
La retroalimentación mínima (retrocanalización), no sólo señala que el oyente
está escuchando, sino que tiene el efecto de animar al interlocutor, señalando:
¡cuéntame más!: Sin la retroalimentación el hablante podría dejar caer el tema.
Obsérvese que no se trata de cambio de hablante, el hablante continúa hablando,
haciendo caso omiso a los mhms y mms que pudieran aparecer. La retroalimentación en
forma de interjección espontánea se hace patente en los ejemplos (1) y (2):
(1) J01:
J05:
J01:
J05:
J01:
pero tú donde vives
en el golf
ufffff
[pero yooo]
[qué paliza no]
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J05: yaaa sabes perooo es que tampoco me importa mucho... COLAm35:3
(2) W1: found Jules?
‘has encontrado a Jules?’
W2: he’s in the other room.
‘está en el otro quarto’
W1: oh….
‘ah’
W4: right now
‘justo ahora’
W1: oh bollocks. COLT 42202: 42-45
‘joe mierda’
En el caso (1), uffff significa a la vez “qué lejos” y “sigue hablando. En ambos corpora
las palabras tabús resultaron ser señales de reacción común.
En su estudio del habla preadolescente Fine (1981: 55-56) argumenta que los
amigos tienen permiso y se espera incluso que se insulten, y añade que se agrega un
insulto sobre otro, cosa que concuerda enteramente con nuestros hallazgos sobre el
lenguaje juvenil. Y, como dijeron Mateo y Yus (2000: 111), los insultos con el fin de
reforzar los lazos sociales o la fuerza fática de un intercambio debería tomarse
únicamente como una manera de socializar y como una estrategia de interacción
conversacional. El ejemplo siguiente es un extracto de una conversación entre jóvenes
(14 años):
(3) G05: el Gomi se quedó solo
G03: no seas hijo de puta
G05: que se queda solo
G03: pues qué te jodas
G05: que me jodan a mí por
G03: porque eres tonto
G05: vaya witch
G03: eres un tolijo
G07: mira leí dos veces en...
G03: en una puta mariquiquita COLAm42:17
En ambos corpora, los tabús dominan en el habla de los chicos. En COLT los chicos de
Londres usan expresiones del tipo you are a dick, bloody chiefer, peanut head, you little
wanker and the girls you stupid cow, you fucking slag and you”re such a whore.
En las conversaciones de las chicas de Madrid nos encontramos con expresiones
del tipo joder, hostia y que te cagas, pero ningún abusivo. Ninguno de los abusivos ni
otras palabras tabús parecen ser usadas con el fin de molestar o de tener el efecto de
insultar. Generalmente se han dicho de modo jocoso o lúdico, a veces expresados
“alegremente”, según Fine (1981: 54). No cabe duda de que las señales de
retroalimentación, hechas por backchannels (o retrocanalización), interjecciones o
palabras tabús, tienen un efecto animador que muchas veces desemboca en una
narración más animada.
Como dijo Fuentes Rodríguez (1990: 165), se usan en español ciertos vocativos
meramente para establecer y mantener el contacto e incluso a veces como una
manifestación de afecto. Menciona hombre como el apelativo más común, usado tanto
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
639
por mujeres como por hombres. Hombre aparece en las conversaciones juveniles en
COLAm, pero raras veces, mientras que el apelativo más usado es tío (a veces tronco o
chaval) y tía (a veces hija o tronca).
(4)
J01: ah claro así me hago famosa tía y canto y todo
J03: tía pues en serio lo de lo de no llevar sujetador es mazo de cómodo tía
J02 : {R} tía estás boba {R]
J03: pero esto no lo escucha nadie
J02: tía no no lo escucha to todo el mundo que rebobine y lo oiga tía
COLAm20:2
Es interesante que no haya ningún término correspondiente a este en el corpus
inglés COLT.
Al comparar las conversaciones y las estrategias usadas, los turnos son más
cortos, hay más interrupciones, hay más risas y más uso de palabras tabús en la
conversación española que en la inglesa.
Lo que se refleja tanto en el corpus COLAm como en COLT es que los
hablantes son conscientes de ser grabados. Por ejemplo, a veces es difícil para los
reclutas (las personas que llevan la grabadora) hacer hablar a los demás y que estos
digan algo de fundamento, en vez de decir tonterías. Lo que de manera definitiva refleja
la situación de la grabación es el generoso uso de palabras tabús. En especial los chicos
tienen una tendencia a empezar usando palabras tabús, como un modo de aparentar
algo, siendo los tres elementos más frecuentemente usados fuck, shit and dick y joder,
coño y mierda, respectivamente, y en ningún caso relacionado con el cuerpo o sexo.
En lo que respecta a las señales de reacción, los adolescentes ingleses introducen
señales “no solicitadas” de retroalimentación mínima, efectuadas mediante mhm or mm,
los cuales funciona como backchannels (retrocanalizaciones), un modo no verbal de
mostrar interés, que estimula al hablante a seguir hablando sin causar cambio de turno.
Elementos similares no aparecen en las conversaciones españolas, donde las señales
mínimas de retroalimentación, realizadas típicamente por sí, son explícitamente
solicitadas por el hablante de turno, con un cambio de turno como resultado. Señales de
reacción mediante interjecciones son frecuentes en ambos grupos, así como las palabras
tabús.
Decir algo en una situación donde no hay nada que decir es una “cuestión de
cortesía común” (Malinowski 1972: 152). Esto no implica que haya una relación entre
la educación mínima y la comunión fática, tal como lo señala Zegarac (1998: 350-358),
quien distingue entre sentido lingüístico y efecto cognitivo, diciendo que el uso del
elemento fático viene a ser determinado por lo que es más relevante. Con otras palabras,
si el habla fática o una expresión fática es cortés o descortés no es una cuestión de
convenciones, sino una cuestión de interpretación de una situación particular.
El uso de palabras tabús e insultos viene al caso en este aspecto. Desde el punto
de vista cultural, el uso de palabras tabús puede resultar altamente descortés en una
lengua y ser a la vez señal de compañerismo en otra. Como apuntan Mateo y Yus (2000:
17), los insultos tienen una función social y el significado carece de importancia, algo
que nos parece que concuerda con nuestros hallazgos en el lenguaje juvenil.
Basándonos en la Máxima Fática de Leech: “Evitar el silencio hablando”, como
punto de partida, hemos intentado mostrar en este trabajo que el uso por los jóvenes de
Londres y Madrid de expresiones criticadas por los adultos está altamente motivado por
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fines fáticos, y que éste se puede considerar en justicia como cortés. A este respecto
nótese sobre todo el uso de la animación a la retroalimentación, las señales de reacción,
los cercadores semánticos, las muletillas, o las palabras tabús creadoras de relación.
Todos estos elementos ayudan a mantener viva la conversación.
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
641
A MATTER OF POLITENESS?
A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF PHATIC TALK IN TEENAGE
CONVERSATION
Anna-Brita Stenström and Annette Myre Jörgensen
Conversational interaction between
friends often supplies a minimum of
information, but a maximum of
supportive chat (Aitchison 1996: 22).
Abstract
This corpus-based article explores London and Madrid teenagers’ use of phatic expressions as a
politeness device in their everyday conversations. The starting-point for the study is Leech’s ‘Phatic
Maxim’, which he suggests as a supplement to the four maxims making up Grice’s Cooperative Principle.
The purport of the maxim is to avoid silence by keeping talking, which may involve anything from loose
formulaic talk to connectors and the use of taboo words, all of which are phatic devices with a strong
bonding effect. The teenage talk studied here is largely void of the formulaic expressions that characterize
conversational openings and closings in adult speakers’ casual encounters. Both groups are frequent users
of turn-final appealers which trigger turn-initial uptakes and of reaction signals realized by interjections
and taboo words, all with a strongly bonding effect. Boys in particular are not only allowed but even
expected to use taboo language as a sign of camaraderie and a means to reinforce the phatic strength of an
exchange. In both corpora, there is ample use of fillers that help the speaker to hold the turn, and hedges,
which often act as fillers in addition to helping the speaker avoid self-commitment. And whereas the
Spanish teenagers use certain vocatives as a purely conversational resource to establish and maintain
contact, the English teenagers insert ‘unsolicited’ minimal feedback signals (for example, realized by
mhm or mm) which encourage the current speaker to go on speaking.
Keywords: Corpus linguistics; Teenage conversation; Phatic expressions; Continuity; Rapport.
1. Introduction
Teenage talk has been criticized for being inarticulate and full of slang and taboo words
and not least for being peppered with unnecessary small words (pragmatic markers). In
this paper, which explores the use of phatic talk in Spanish and English teenage
conversation, we argue that not only small words but also taboo words often have a
purely social purpose, helping to keep a conversation going and creating a feeling of
rapport between the speakers, in other words that they have a phatic function, which in
turn is related to linguistic politeness.
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As this paper will illustrate, the interpretation of the term “phatic” allows scope for a
wide range of applications - from loose talk with no informative value (Verschueren
1999: 23) to insults (Mateo & Yus 2000), connective linkers (González (2004) and
verbal fillers, the main purpose of which is to avoid gaps in the conversation (Gibbon
1997). There are obviously cultural differences between languages, in particular as
regards formulaic expressions (cf. McCarthy & Carter 1994), but, as the paper will
show, in this study the similarities tend to dominate.
The starting-point for the study has been the maxim of politeness that Leech (1983:
141-142) suggests as an addition to the four maxims constituting Grice’s Cooperative
Principle, and which he calls the “Phatic Maxim”, the core message of which is “keep
talking!”. In the following this maxim will be adopted, it may seem, in a rather
simplistic way, to explain the relation between phatic talk and politeness in teenage talk.
The question we will try to answer on the basis of this maxim is to what extent the
phatic strategies adopted by the teenagers in this study can be characterized as polite.
2. The data
Two corpora have been used for the study: The Bergen Corpus of London Teenage
Language (COLT) and Corpus de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid (COLAm), both
containing approximately half a million words.
COLT was recorded in London in 1993 by student recruits, who volunteered to
record their conversations with their friends of the same age and a similar social
background for a few days. To that extent, they were equipped with a walkman recorder
and a minute lapel microphone. The speakers, including the recruits, were boys and
girls aged 13 to 17 from working-, middle-, and upper-class school London areas. The
recordings have been orthographically transcribed and word-class tagged, and the entire
material is accessible on the internet in the form of orthographic text with
accompanying sound files and a search programme (http://torvald.aksis.uib.no/colt/cwb;
see also Stenström et al 2002).
COLAm is part of the COLA project (Corpus de Lenguaje Adolescente), which is
run in cooperation between the Spanish and English departments at Bergen University,
Norway. The primary aim of the project was to create a complementary Spanish corpus,
which made it possible to compare Madrid and London teenage language. The
secondary aim has been to include teenage conversations from some Latin-American
capitals to enable a comparison between different varieties of Spanish teenage language
– and their relation to English. Today, COLA includes recordings from Santiago de
Chile and Buenos Aires in addition to the Madrid material, which has been used for the
present study and which contains only peninsular Spanish.
COLAm was compiled in Madrid 2002-2003 on the COLT model, which has also
dictated the further processing of the recordings, with the internet version as the final
product. One important difference as regards the recording procedure is that the Madrid
recruits were equipped with mini-discs, which resulted in better sound quality and faster
processing of the material (http://gandalf.hit.uib.no/cola, http://www.cola.tk).
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
643
3. Phatic talk
3.1. Characteristics of “phatic communion”
Although linguists tend to use the term “phatic communion” in quite different ways
(Lyons 1977: 740), Malinowski’s definition of the term, “a type of speech in which ties
of union are created by a mere exchange of words, and which does not communicate
ideas (1923: 315), is “widely accepted” (Laver 1975: 215). Lyons (1977) emphasizes
the communicative aspect, which he sees as part of the “social function” of language
and argues that phatic communion is realized by a limited set of utterances with no
informative value (see also Levinson 1983; Crystal 1995; Senft 1995; Verschueren
1999).
According to Laver (1975), the two main functions of phatic communion are the
establishment and consolidation of the interpersonal relationship and the “management
of the transition from non-interaction to full interaction, and the transition from
interaction back to non-interaction” (1975: 232), which “occurs primarily in the opening
and closing phases of the interaction”, and is “achieved through stereotyped patterns of
behaviour” (1975: 232-233). Stenström (1994: 11) defines phatic talk as the “extra”
warming-up and winding-up talk, which helps create a pleasant atmosphere”, Senft
(1995: 3) refers to phatic utterances as “means for keeping the communication channel
open”, and Langford (1994) emphasizes that “it is usual to exchange information of a
more socially bonding kind... before moving on to exchanges of a more specifically
professional kind” (1994: 151), while McCarthy and Carter (1994) point to cultural
differences when it comes to the use of standard expressions.
Cheepen (1988) has a wider definition. In her view, phatic communion can “occur
as short words or phases among other, non-phatic speech, and it can also extend over a
whole encounter (such as a chat)” (1988: 20-21). She argues that “there has been, since
1923, a strong tendency for linguists to understate the extent to which phatic
communion dominates dialogue, and to view it as occurring ONLY in short phrases
amidst other, more ‘important’ uses of language” (1988: 21).
Going beyond the more traditional definitions of phatic talk mentioned above, a
type of communicative devices mentioned by Mateo and Yus (2000) is realized by
taboo words in their capacity as “communicative devices”. “Praise-centred” taboo
words, they argue, “with no intention of insulting” are examples of “phatic” talk.
Gibbon (1997) suggests the use of “phatic fillers”, such as oh or er. Connectives, which
link utterances, are seen as phatic devices by Bazzanella (1990) and by González (2004:
313), with reference to Fuentes (1993: 213-214), who describes bueno as a “concessive
element frequently used by the speaker as a propositional linker, so as not to lose the
argumentative thread, and as a face-threat mitigator”. In this connection it might be
added that certain small words, too, can be used as face-threat mitigators, while at the
same time helping the speaker to go on speaking, notably Spanish en plan and its
English equivalent like (see Section 4.1.4).
Zegarac (1998: 340-341) finally, who takes a relevance-theoretical approach,
argues that the term phatic communication “does not identify a natural class of
phenomena” but that what counts as phatic is a product of the contextual situation.
According to him “[our] intuitions about the phatic use of language are based on a
pattern of interacting factors, including: (a) what the information communicated is
about, (b) the types of evidence exploited in the interpretation, (c) the strength at which
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the information is communicated, and (d) the distribution of cognitive effects according
to the type of evidence exploited in achieving those effects.” (1998: 340-341). ). He
emphasizes that phatic communication is often “unadventurous”, with reference to
“safe” topics, such as the weather, the hearer’s well-being, and so on (1998: 348; cf
Leech 1983 below).
3.2. The Phatic Maxim
In his chapter on politeness maxims, Leech (1983: 141) underlines the close connection
between politeness and phatic communion, or “the activity of talking merely to preserve
sociability”, where “stock subjects” (such as the weather) or “uninformative statements”
(such as You’ve had your hair cut!) are very helpful. The only goal of this kind of chitchat is to maintain friendly social relations, and, in turn, evade a breach of politeness”
(1983: 39-40).
Since this kind of remarks constitute a breach of Grice’s Cooperative Principle by
violating the Maxim of Quantity, Leech sees the need for an additional maxim, which
he calls the “Phatic Maxim”, the purport of which is to “Avoid silence” or “Keep
talking” but it would be “inadequate to describe phatic communion as simple avoidance
of silence” (1983: 141), he adds; it rather “serves to extend the common ground of
agreement and experience shared by the participants.” (1083: 142) through the choice of
non-controversial subjects and concentration speaker attitudes instead of facts Being
silent when engaged in a conversation would be impolite.
4. Phatic talk illustrated
4.1. General
The primary aim of the COLT and COLA projects was to make teenagers talk in order
to collect two reasonably large corpora of – hopefully - spontaneous teenage
conversation. No other reasons were given to the recruits. In order to obtain as genuine
speech as possible, the recruits were instructed to keep the recording equipment hidden,
so that, ideally, the other students would not notice that they were being recorded. In
reality, however, this turned out not be the case, judging by the frequent references to
what was going on, such as ¿se me ve el micrófono?, ay me está grabando, lo único que
hacemos es tonterías con el micrófono, ¿lo has grabado esto?, appeals such as so come
on, talk to me! come on, it’s just a microphone, and so on. Some students were afraid of
being recorded when using bad language, as for instance one of the 15-year-old privateschool boys in COLT:
(1)
W1: the cleaner upstairs, she asked me to find out what kind of cakes everybody
liked cos she’s buying every single person an individual, like you know, a
single cake for everybody. not like a big one to share like she’s buying
everybody a cake each.
W4: it’s fucking brilliant.
W3: the one who’s [down here as well?]
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
W1:
W4:
W?:
W1:
W7:
645
[shit they didn’t record ] that did they?
it doesn’t matter
well I said a rude word.
{nv} laugh { /nv }
[well no it doesn’t matter er ]
[anonymity guaranteed. ] COLT 42103: 89-97
Others did not seem to mind:
(2)
GO1: uy pero ?qué haces?
‘hey but what are you doing?’
GO2: vamos bicho tronco
‘come on you bastard’
G12: bicho macho para ponerte una mierda de grabación
‘you bastard just do do this shit of a recording’
GO3: {risa}
‘laughter’
GO1: eh pero luego voy a escuchar con tal que me guste lo tu pongas eh COLAm41: 1
‘hey but afterwards I’m going to listen as long as you put on what I like’
The fact that everybody knew what was going on quite often had the effect that entire
recordings can best be described as phatic; they are chats with no real informative
content, talk for the sake of talking, which is in agreement with Cheepen (1988: 20-21),
who argued that “phatic communion does not only “occur as short words or phases
among other, non-phatic speech” but may also “extend over a whole encounter (such as
a chat), which may last for several hours.”, except that the teenage conversations did not
normally last that long.
4.1.1. Openings & closings
Phatic talk is typically found in the opening and closing phases of the interaction (cf
Laver 1975: 232). But unlike many real-life as opposed to recorded conversations, and
telephone conversations in particular (cf Stenström 1994: 135f), the teenage
conversations in COLT and COLAm do not have recognizable openings realized by
greetings and warming-up talk or closings in the form of winding-up talk and farewells,
which we ascribe mainly to the recording situation. Therefore there are very few
instances of conventionalized phatic words such as hola and hello or other standardized
phatic expressions. These occur only when a friend suddenly joins the group of speakers
in the middle of ongoing talk. If there is an opening section at all, it is almost
exclusively realized by talk about the recording, as in example (3) from COLAm, which
starts as follows:
(3)
GX1: ?estás grabando?
‘are you recording?’
JO1: sí
‘yes’
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Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
GX1: huy como mola tronca
‘hey I like that’
JO1: {risa}
‘laughter’
GX1: qué movida
‘what a mess’
JO3: ay por favor qué cansancio
‘oh please I’m so tired’
This is followed by small talk about personal matters (eg cuando es tu cumpleaños) and
more talk about the recording, before the “real topic” is embarked upon, boys, or more
specifically going to Sevilla, where the boys are much more good-looking than those in
Madrid:
J01: voy por la calle en Madrid son todos feísimos yo los veo a todos horribles digo
uauauah qué tío más feo
‘if I walk along the streets in Madrid they are all so ugly, I mean I find them all terrible’
J04: no todo el mundo es feo
‘no everybody is not ugly’
J01: en Sevilla
‘ in Seville’
J03: vete vete a las chabolas y seguro que encuentras gitanos que te parecen monos
‘go go to the shacks and I’m sure ýou’ll find some gipsies that are good-looking’
COLAm6:1-5
There is an abrupt ending, when the recorder is suddenly switched off:
1J3b: [estás grabando/]
‘are you recording/’
1J3: [es que se va a ac – sí pero es que tiene no bateria . entonces se va a acabar ya
‘but it is going to fin - yes but it doesn’t have any battery left it’s going to end now’
1J3b: [(xxx)]
1J3: [es que se va a apagar me . cago en la leche . ven vamos] COLAm38:16
‘[ but it’s going to die shit . come let’s go’
Similar examples are found in COLT.
4.1.2. Appealers and uptakes
Phatic devices have a strong bonding effect by contributing to the establishment and
maintenance of communicative contact (Laver 1975; Senft 1995; Mateo & Yus 2000).
What devices can be more effective in this respect than a turn-final item serving as an
“appealer” for feedback followed by the next speaker’s turn-initial “uptake”?
(Stenström 1994: 71, 79-80). Spanish eh/ and no/ (“/” indicting a rising tone) and
English eh? okay? right? and innit? were found to serve as appealers in COLAm and
COLT, as illustrated in examples (4 ) to (9 ):
(4)
J02: bueno ahora recogemos eh/
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
647
‘well now we’ll tidy up things together eh’
G03: no nos ha dicho Diego que no COLAm41:1
‘no Diego has told us not to’
(5)
J01: ... hace frío no/
‘ ... it’s cold isn’t it’
JX1: sí COLAm19:15
‘yes’
(6)
W1: you thought that was funny eh?
W2: yeah . COLT 134802: 28-29
(7)
W1: I'll be down in about twenty minutes , okay?
W9: alright .COLT 139308:200-201
(8)
Tiffany: he’s going out with wo=, a gi=, a woman called Keilly, right?
Susie: yeah. Right. COLT 135004:132-133
(9)
W1: yeah but the insurance company are probably gonna pay erm , through me
innit?
W2: oh yeah { unclear } { nv } laugh { /nv } COLT: 56-57
There is no doubt that the speaker who initiated the exchange would feel at a loss
without the interlocutor’s reaction. Moreover, the interlocutor would be extremely
impolite not to respond.
In this connection, it might be mentioned that García Vizcaíno & MartínezCabeza (2005: 75) discuss the phatic use of Spanish bien or y bien? “as cue to the hearer
to begin or continue a turn” corresponding to English well or well then? None of these
items were found in turn-final appealer position in COLT and COLAm, however.
4.1.3. Reaction signals
When somebody tells a story or gives an account of something, the listener is expected
to show an interest in what s/he is being told, either verbally or non-verbally. It would
be very rude to demonstrate a lack of interest by not responding in one way or the other.
Verbally, the interest might be expressed in the form of minimal feedback (eg mhm),
interjections (eg oh) or taboo words (eg joder, fuck). Minimal feedback is illustrated in
(10):
(10)
W1: well did I tell you we had to do this , I did tell you , we had to do this erm
W9: don't think you did .
W1: dra= er some of us had to do a drama competition { unclear }
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Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
W9:
W1:
W9:
W1:
W9:
W1:
W9:
W1:
W9:
mm
got a hundred percent for acting
mhm
and it was money prizes but they took , they were looking for things to take
marks off cos all the other schools doing it were state schools
mm
and so that money prizes aren't gonna go to a school like
no
ours and so erm { nv }clears throat { /nv} so , they , so we would have come
second had we had an , had we had an audience , I mean that's the ridiculous
thing it's the content , having to do with what you know the environment is it ?
so we got but we got a hundred per cent acting or something and the two
masters are gonna take us out , the five of us out to dinner .
oh , nice . COLT 42702: 1-14
Minimal feedback signals, or backchannels, do not only show that the addressee is
listening, but they also have an encouraging effect, signalling “tell me more!”; without
them the current speaker might just drop the topic. Notice that there is no speaker
change; the current speaker just goes on speaking without paying “open” attention to the
mhms and mms, as it were.
There is a difference between the two corpora both as regards the occurrence and the
realization of feedback. In COLT, feedback in the form of backchannels realized by
“unobtrusive” items such as mm/mhm is common, and as we have seen, the current
speaker goes on uninterrupted. In COLAm, this kind of feedback does not seem to
occur at all. Instead we find examples like (11), where the feedback is triggered by the
current speaker’s turn-final appealer (no/sí). In other words, the current speaker asks
openly for feedback, which results in the addressee’s response in the form of a turn
shift, indicating “I am listening”, “I agree” and “go on speaking”.
(11)
J04: te han echado de clase qué chollo
‘they’ve thrown you out of class lucky you’
J06: porque está menopásica menopaúsica la tía mira entra en clase yyy dice estaba
todo el mundo ahí de juerga no
‘ because she’s menopausic menopausic look she gets into the classroom and everybody was
fooling around ok’
J04: sí
‘yes’
J06: entonces eeeh eeeeh eeeh la o sea la hemos visto entrar y nadie se ha inmutado
todo el mundo ha seguido a lo suyo estábamos escribiendo la tarjeta para Rocio
que es su compleaños no el domingo [entonces nadie se ha inmutado sí]
‘ then eeeh eeeeh eeeh we well we saw her coming in and nobody moved everybody went on
doing
their stuff we were writing a card to Rocio because it’s her birthday on Sunday isn’t it
[then nobody moved eah]’
J04:
[sí]
‘[yes]’
J06: sí entonces ella ahí sentada tal como con cara de mala leche pero que no le
apetecía gritar ni nada no
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
649
‘and then she was like sitting there with an annoyed face but as if she didn’t want to
scream or anything eh’
J04: sí
‘yes’
J06: entonces cuando justo cuando ha empezado a ex iba a empezar a explicar y una
niña le ha preguntado una duda entonces estaban Carla que está aquí y María
aquí hablando como de punta a punta ... COLAm35:4
‘ then when just when she started to ex she was going to start to explain and a girl asked her a
question then Carla was here and Maria here like talking from one end to the other’
Feedback in the form of interjections is illustrated in (12) and (13):
(12)
J01: pero tu donde vives
‘but where do you live?’
J05: en el golf
‘by the golf court’
J01: uffff
J05: [pero yooo]
‘[but I I I I ]’
J01: [qué paliza no]
‘[a hard job isn’t it]
J05: yaaa sabes perooo es que tampoco me importa mucho ... COLAm35:3
‘ yeah but you know I really don’t mind very much’
Here ufffff does not only encourage J05 to go on speaking; it also reflects J01”s reaction
(“that”s very far away”). In other words, it works not only on the interactional level but
also on the referential level. In contrast, oh in (13) does indeed react to what the current
speaker just said but does not affect the interactional level, since the current speaker
goes on speaking without taking any notice.
(13)
W1:
W4:
W1:
W4:
W1:
found Jules?
he's in the other room .
oh . . . .
right now
oh bollocks . COLT 42202: 42-45
But in both corpora, taboo words were found to be more common reaction signals than
interjections.
In his study of preadolescent talk, Fine (1981: 55-56) argues that friends are allowed
and even expected to insult each other as a show of camaraderie, adding that insults
often “build upon each other”, which agrees entirely with our findings with regard to
adolescent talk, that is boys’ talk. And as mentioned by Mateo & Yus (2000:111),
insults with the purpose of reinforcing social bonds or the phatic strength of an
exchange “should be taken solely as a socialising and purely interactive conversational
strategy.”. This is an extract from a boy’s conversation:
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Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
(14)
G05: el Gomi se quedó solo
‘Gomi was left alone’
G03: no seas hijo de puta
‘don’t be such a son of a bitch’
G05: que se queda solo
‘but he is alone’
G03: pues qué te jodas
‘fuck off’
G05: que me jodan a mí por
‘they should try me because’
G03: porque eres tonto
‘ because you’re dumb’
G05: vaya witch
‘what a witch’
G03: eres un tolijo
‘ you are a son of a bitch’
G07: mira leí dos veces en ...
‘look I read twice in…’
G03: en una puta mariquiquita COLAm42:17
‘in a fucking little ladybird’
In both corpora, taboo words dominate in boys’ talk. The London boys in COLT use
expressions such as you are a dick, bloody chiefer, peanut head, you little wanker and
the girls you stupid cow, you fucking slag and you’re such a whore. In the Madrid girls’
conversations we meet expressions such as joder, hostia, and que te cagas but no
abusives. None of the abusive nor other taboo words seem to be used for the sake of
insulting nor to have an insulting effect (cf Stenström et al 2002: 80-81). They are
generally said in a rather playful way, “often expressed ‘joyously’” according to Fine
(1981: 54). There is no doubt that feedback signals, whether they are realized by
backchannels, interjections or taboo words, have an encouraging effect, which often
results in a livelier or more exciting account.
4.1.4. Linkers
Connective linkers are sometimes difficult to separate from fillers (Section 4.1.5). They
both work on the macrostructural level, both within and between turns; that is to say,
both as a discursive and an interactional device. Spanish bueno and pues and English
well, and sometimes cos (because), are typically used on this level. Some linguists refer
to this use as purely phatic (eg Vigara 1990: 77; Cortés 1991: 106). Martínez García
(1990: 600) in González (2004: 262), claims that pues “carece de todo significado y
función y solo se utiliza como una especie de ‘muletilla’ en un intento de explicar una
‘causa’ que en realidad no se conoce”, a view that is shared by Cortés Rodríguez (991:
33) and Fuentes (1993: 213)), but is strongly opposed by Gonzalez, who, following Briz
(1993: 46), argues that the role of pragmatic markers like pues “cannot be viewed –
only– in purely phatic terms”, or, in other words, as simply filling an empty space, a
view that we fully support. According to Fuentes Rodríguez (1990: 137), these items
“[p]arecen ser de poca importancia en la comunicación. Sin embargo, constituyen [...]
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
651
el recurso más utilizado en una conversación”. Consider the use of pues in (15), where
two girls are discussing what to wear at a party:
(15)
LJ3: tú ¿qué te vas a poner?
‘ what are you going to wear?’
X:
pues yo me voy a poner una falda larga vaquera y luego por arriba es que no lo
sé tengo muchas opciones COLAm18:3
‘well I’m going to put on a black jeans skirt and on top I really don’t know I’ve got many
options’
Pues in this position, serving as a turn-taker and response marker, is by no means
pragmatically empty but indicates some insufficiency in the response, just like the
English equivalent well would do in a similar situation (cf Lakoff 1973; Svartvik 1980;
Stenström 1984). The insufficiency in (15) consists in X not knowing exactly what to
wear. Thus, the answer is incomplete, which explains the occurrence of the face-saving
mitigator pues. A similar function is realized by well in (16), where W7 provides an
indirect response instead of a direct yes-answer.
(16)
W9: are you sure it's right that there are girls in the room?
W7: well it says on the door, girls' annexe . COLT 41901: 211-212
Bueno in this position, as a response marker, “parece un puro atenuativo, conector sin
más matices añadidos”; according to Fuentes, “más fático, más continuativo puramente
hablando” (1993: 213). It indicates the beginning of a turn, linking up with what
preceded and attenuating the response:
(17)
1J3: como es manga francesa/
‘ ince it is a French sleeve’
1J3a: bueno es como así azulita COLAm38:
‘well, it is like bluish’
When occurring in a monological sequence, Fuentes (1993: 213-214) sees bueno as a
purely phatic connector used to continue or resume the argumentative thread, although
it is, properly speaking, an element that indicates the end of one theme and the transition
to a new. According to García Vizcaíno and Martínez-Cabeza (2005: 82f) the two major
functions of bueno are “transition” and ”redress”, realized as rectification and selfcorrection. Rectification, they say, “is oriented to save the hearer’s positive face while
self-correction is intended to save the speaker’s positive face”.
Examples (18) and (19) illustrate the continuative use of bueno and well:
(18)
J01: no o sea yo le digo digo bueno tal pues es que claro yo iría a Sevilla = vas a
venir a la feria y yo iría pero no tengo sitio = bueno si organizais un par de
días y me sacais por ahí = dice eso está hecho tal vienes a mi casa {risa} = {R}
sí sí {R}{risa}COLAm5.
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Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
‘well like I tell him OK then well of course I would go to Seville are you going to the fare I
would but I haven’t got a place to stay OK if you fix a couple of days and you take me out
somewhere = he says consider it done then you can stay at my place then {laughter} = {R}yes
yes {R}{ laughter}’
(19)
W1: he had this really nice cap , and it was a really smart cap , I just really liked it
and he was a bit of an ugly well he wasn't ugly he was just really gormless and
I said erm he must have been about twenty something and I said to him , can I
have your hat, he said no it's from a friend it's sentimental or something COLT
42704: 121
The two main functions of well are as transition marker and attenuation marker (García
Vizcaíno and Martínez-Cabeza 2005: 78f), the latter of which is illustrated in (19). We
agree that it mitigates the threat of a potential FTA by attenuating a previously
expressed opinion, notably the speaker’s own opinion.. This function is similar to the
self-correction in bueno. All in all, “well in the attenuation function and bueno in its
rectification function are used as politeness strategies to mitigate the illocutionary force
of the FTA and hence, to save participants” face in the interaction” (2005: 87).
4.1.5. Fillers and hedges
Fillers help the current speaker to hold the turn, thus keeping the conversation going by
filling an empty space and preventing silence. In our view, pure fillers, or as near as one
can get to pragmatically empty items, are typically realized by filled pauses, as in (20)
and (21):
(20)
J06: entonces eeeh eeeeh eeeh la o sea la hemos visto entrar ... COLAm 35:3
‘ then eh eh eh well like we have seen her come in’
It is obvious that the speaker does not know how to continue at the start of the turn.
Notice the co-occurrence with o sea, which also points to uncertainty.
(21)
W9: Come on I want the truth and nothing but truth , [what did you say ] ?
W1:
[er , well ] I told her that , I
told her all the sad things you'd ever done in your life
W9: Like what ?
W1: Like erm , er , I can't think off hand now . COLT 42002:20-23
Here the speaker openly admits his predicament by I can’t think off hand now.
Hedges, too, often act as fillers besides modifying an utterance and helping the
speaker avoid committing him/herself. Take for instance Spanish en plan and its
English equivalent like. They are both very helpful when the speaker struggles for
words, or does not know how to proceed, but they are not pragmatically empty like the
filled pauses erm/er and eeeeh.
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
653
(22)
J01: pero es anoréxica en plan que está famélica
‘but is she anorectic like she is all emaciated’
J02: sí sí sí que es anoréxica que está en tratamiento que toma pastillas yyy y
entonces – no pero tampoco se le nota tanto eh o sea en las piernas sobre todo
pero nooo o sea o mucho nooo además es ideal la niña
‘ yes yes yes she is anorectic she’s being treated and is taking pills and and and then no but you
wouldn’t notice it so well the legs above all and so but no well not much no ooo and it is a
lovely girl’
J01: y va en plan apretada o va en plan – suelta
‘but does she wear her clothes all tight or loose’
J02: sultecilla yo creo no sé no normal normal ... COLAm31:2
‘rather loose I think I don’t know normal normal’
Here, the use of en plan serves to protect the speaker’s positive face: J01 does not say
straight out that the girl she is talking about is famélica, apretada or suelta. In (23), on
the other hand, the stalling function of like seems to predominate:
(23)
W1: ... my brother at least thinks Jimmy's really nice ,
W8: Does he ?
W1: like yeah because like , about what he did you know he was staying up for
pairs and all this , and like giving him money and looking after Andrew , so he
goes to my parents Jimmy's really nice. COLT 41606: 38-40
Hedges are typically face-saving devices. By modifying the force of an utterance and
reducing the speaker’s commitment to what is being said, one of their major functions is
to protect the speaker’s as well as the addressee’s face (cf Coates 1996: 156).
4.1.6. Appellatives
As mentioned by Fuentes Rodríguez (1990: 165) certain vocatives are used in Spanish
as a purely conversational resource to establish and maintain contact and sometimes
express affection. She mentions hombre as the most common appellative, which is used
by females as well as males. Hombre does occur in the teenage conversations in
COLAm, but very seldom, the most frequent appellatives being tío (sometimes tronco
or chaval) and tía (sometimes hija or tronca).
(24)
J01: ah claro así me hago famosa y canto y todo
‘ oh of course ‘ I’ll be famous and I’ll sing and all’
J03: tía pues en serio lo de lo de no llevar sujetador es mazo de cómodo tía
‘ but seriously not wearing a bra is very comfortable’
J02 : {R} tía estás boba {R]
‘{R} you’re stupid {R]’
J03: pero esto no lo escucha nadie
‘but nobody is going to listen to this’
J02: tía no no lo escucha to todo el mundo que rebobine y lo oiga tía COLAm20:2
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Anna-Brita Stenström y Annette Myre Jörgensen
‘ no no no not everybody will listen they can just rewind and listen to it’
Interestingly, there are no corresponding expressions in the London teenagers’
conversations.
5. Discussion
5.1. Cultural differences
Generally speaking, when comparing the conversations and the strategies used, one gets
the impression that the turns are shorter, that there are more interruptions, that there is
more laughter and more use of taboo words in the Spanish than in the English
conversations. And, as we saw in Section 4.1.6, there are no appellatives used as phatic
devices in the English conversations. Whether this points to stronger involvement on the
part of the Spanish teenagers due to their cultural background is an open question.
Maybe the difference is a reflection of García Vizcaíno and Martínez-Cabeza’s (2005:
71) assertion that some cultures (e.g., Spanish) “consider closeness and solidarity as
essential values in social interaction” as opposed to other cultures (e.g., British) where
independence and individualism are more highly valued.
What is reflected in both COLT and COLAm is that the speakers are mostly aware of
being recorded. For instance, it is sometimes difficult for the recruits to get the other
students to speak and say something sensible instead of pure nonsense. What definitely
seems to reflect the situation, being recorded, is the often very rich use of taboo words.
Boys in particular have a tendency to start using taboo words in this situation as a way
of showing off, the top three being fuck, shit and dick and joder coño and mierda ,
respectively, in either case words related to sex and bodily functions.
Phatic communion in the form of social talk about the weather, personal appearance
and so on, which typically occurs when people meet in a non-recording situation, is
largely missing in both groups, while small talk about the recording, especially at the
beginning of the conversations, is somewhat more common in the Spanish group, which
seems to indicate that the Spanish teenagers are less capable of ignoring the presence of
the recorder.
As regards the use of small words, both groups are frequent users of turn-final
appealers to trigger a turn-initial uptake, though using a different, culture-bound,
inventory, with the exception of eh. On the other hand, Spanish turn-final no has no
equivalent in English, where okay, right and innit (isn’t it) have the same appealing
function.
With respect to reaction signals, the English teenagers insert “unsolicited” minimal
feedback signals, eg. realized by mhm or mm, which act as backchannels, encouraging
the current speaker to go on speaking, without causing speaker shifts. Similar items do
not occur in the Spanish conversations, where minimal feedback signals, typically
realized by sí, are specifically “asked for” by the current speaker in the form of an
appealer, with speaker shifts as a result. Reaction signals realized by interjections are
frequent in both groups, and so are taboo words.
The Spanish micro-structural linking words bueno and pues generally correspond to
well in English. In addition to serving as connective linkers, contributing to the cohesion
and coherence of the discourse, these items also serve as stalling devices, whereas
“pure” fillers occur in the form of Spanish eeeh and English erm/er. Hedges, too,
A contrastive study of phatic talk in teenage conversation
655
realized by Spanish en plan and English like, often have a stalling function in addition
to their characteristic function as utterance modifiers.
5.2. Is teenage phatic talk polite?
To say something in a situation where there is very little or hardly anything to say is
belongs to common courtesy. This does not mean, however, that there is a direct link
between politeness and phatic communion, as pointed out by Zegarac (1998: 350-358),
who distinguishes between linguistic meaning and cognitive effect and argues that the
phatic use of an utterance has to do with what is most relevant. In other words, whether
phatic talk or a phatic expression is polite or impolite is not a matter of convention but a
matter of interpretation in a particular situation.
The use of taboo words and insults is a case in point. From a cultural point of view,
the use of taboo words can be perceived as highly impolite in one language and seen as
a token of camaraderie in another, with a bonding effect, a use that is typical of teenage
talk. From a moral point of view, it might of course be argued that the use of taboo
words and insults is intrinsically impolite, but as Mateo & Yus (2000:17) point out,
insults fulfil a social function while the meaning is almost irrelevant, something that we
have found refers to the use of taboo words in general in teenage talk.
With Leech”s Phatic Maxim, the core message of which is to avoid silence by
keeping talking, as a comfortable starting-point, we have tried to show in this study that
the London and Madrid teenagers’ use of expressions that have been criticized by adults
is highly motivated for phatic purposes and can rightfully be considered to represent
polite behaviour, notably the use of encouraging feedback and reaction signals, facesaving hedges, the macro-structural small words (including pure fillers) and the use of
rapport-creating taboo words. They all help to keep a conversation going.
6. Concluding remarks
An intriguing question that has to be answered is where to draw the line between phatic
talk and informative talk. Is this just a matter of intuition? Is phaticness a matter of
degree? Zegarac & Clark (1999: 565) discuss “phatic interpretation” (cf. Zegarac 1998),
according to which the “interpretation is phatic to the extent that its main relevance lies
with implicated conclusions which do not depend on the explicit content of the
utterance, but rather on the communicative intention”. This sounds reasonable but is
note entirely convincing. What is it, for instance, that says that the hearer interprets the
speaker’s communicative intention the way s/he intended? This in turn has implications
for the degree of (im)politeness involved. The discussion goes on.
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